Protecting a National Military Body: Territorialising New Zealand's Border Spaces, November 1915

摘要

In highlighting this efflorescence of activity in late 1915 concerning the movement of military age men some tentative conclusions may be drawn. The activity of governing is not characterised by a smooth extension of programs and strategies. Rather governing is constantly marked by the emergence of new problems which, in turn, require the assemblage of new programs and techniques. This article has sought to explore one example in the context of New Zealand's war experience. Nothwithstanding loud declamations as to the nation's loyalty and willingness to fight alongside Britain, it was also evident that significant tensions existed in New Zealand as to how that sacrifice should be organised and distributed. Such tensions circulated around both the quantity of military age men enlisting, and the qualitative judgements as to who should be enlisting. Set amid such anxiety, the 'shirker'-the figure defined by his unwillingness to undertake duty as a military subject-emerged as an object of both public and government concern. It was around this problematic figure that the exit permit system emerged as a program designed to ensure that military duty could not be avoided, and that the nation's quantitative capacity not be dissipated through the leakage of military age men overseas.